Improvement in car-couplings



W, HALSTED.

` cAR-'coUPL-ING.

No. 177,117. y Patented May9,1e76.

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-. UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE,`

WILLIAM HALsTED, oE TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAR-C-OUPLIN-GS.

' Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 177, l [7, dated May 9, 1876 application led February f5, 1876.

To all whom it may concern: y

Beit known that I, WILLIAM HALsTED, of the city of Trenton, county of Mercer, and

' State of New Jersey, have invented a new and v useful Safety-Coupling for Cars and Locomotives, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specilication, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

` The objects of this invention are to prevent risk of life and limb both in the act of coupling and while the train is running; to lessen the liability of running off the track; to cause the forward end of the locomotive or car to be forced downward upon the track, and thus to prevent its rising and jumping the track, and, in case of the breaking of a wheel or axle, to sustain the locomotive or car, and to permit it to run along without upsetting.

Figure l is a side elevation of a locomotive and its tender with my improved safetycouplers applied thereto, and Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the couplers on an enlarged scale.

A represents a bar of iron large and strong enough to draw a whole train of cars, two such bars being employed to connect the locomotive to its tender, one on each side of the locomotive, and they are made long enough to reach from the front cross-beam of the locomotive-z'. c., the beam to which the cow-catcher and the front part of the boiler are att :chedback to the front beam of the engines tender, as shown in the drawing. These bars are each made alike, and are bent at both ends into the form of a semicircle, as shown at b b, of a diameter of, say, from two feet four to two feet eight inches, these bends or curves being toward each other. The yforward end I attach by a strong iron bolt, c, passingl perpendicularly through the transverse beam el in front of the boiler, and-the rear end I attach lbya bolt, e, to the front beam ofthe truck of the en gines tender. This bolt should pass through a slot in the barA of several inches in length, and of about the width of the diameter of the bolt, so as to permit a certain backward and forward motion, to allow the bar to accommodate itself to any curve of the rails, and the lower or straight part of the bar should be about from eight to twelve inches from the ground or bed of the rail. These bars may .of these bars, near their front and rear curves,

to facilitate the running of these couplingbars, in case a wheel should break, or from any other cause a bar should come to thel ground. The bars, in such event, whether provided with the rollers ornot, actinglike the runners of a sleigh, not only to sustain the locomotive,

but also to permit it to glide along without breaking down. ThesebarsA, also, by reason of extending from the front end of' one vehicle to the frontend of the one in advance of it, and in the case of the locomotive being connected 'withthe front beam of the'truck 011 which the boiler rests, and whose ends extend about eighteen inches outside of the rails of the road,

it is manifest that any weight attached to suchprojecting ends must act like a lever to hold the front wheels ofthe engine down upon the rail, and keep each side ofthe engine in equilibrium, and to counteract the4 tendency of each wheel to rise above the flange of the rail. i

By the ordinary mode ofconpling the locomotive tothe tender there is nothing to keep the front wheels on the rails except the mere weight of the front part ot' the engine; but by my mode of coupling I not only bring to bear upon the front wheels all the weightof the front partl of the engine, but, in addition thereto, a great part of the weight of the tender, or ofthe tender and train, which is attached to it, such added weight acting like a weight, operating upon a lever outside of the wheels, pressing them down upon the rails.

It will be evident that by couplings of this character the whole weight of a train when in motion has a direct tendency to draw the front wheels of the locomotive downward as well as backward, and therefore very powerfully to cause the wheels to adhere closely to the rails, and therefore to counteract any tendency which either of them might have to rise A track.

above the angeof the rail and to jump the This: same kind of coupling placed between the tender and the baggage car, and placed between the cars, would have the same tendency to keep the wheels of the cars down upon the track.

Another advantage of this mode of coupling is, that it will prevent the great loss of life occa sionedby a prevalent mode ot' coupling, where the employ of the road has to go between two cars, which are moved toward each otherpreparatory to being coupled together.

A locomotive cannotbe thrown oli' the track, except by the operation oftwo distinctforcesthe one an upward one to lift the wheels three or four inches high, according to the depth 0f the flange ot' the wheel, and the other a lateral force, to deflect them from a right line to a distance greater than the breadth of thetop ot' the rail, whereas, in existing couplers now in use, the traction of a train of cars is ordinarily only by one point or link, and that under the central line of the locomotive; there is nothing whatever to counteract the tendency of the front wheels of the engine to be lifted by any upward force imparted to them, or to be detlected from a straight line or course by any lateral force imparted to them. But it is obvious that with my improvement "the locomotive will not have a tendency to rise or to be deflected from' a right line; but these tendencies will be eft'ectually counteracted by the iron bar at each` side of the car or locomotive.,` thepnllondraft beingall downlward. and. backward upontheforward end of together passenger or other cars which are not directly coupled to4 the` locomotive, may be made shorter, and' then, instead of connecting` the forward end of one carto the forwardend i of another, they may be attached from the forward end ot' one carto the rear end` of the car ahead of it, extending under the platform and-under the steps, one end of each such short curved bar A being attached to the outside of theend of the back part of the front car, and to the outside front part ot' the car behind it.

I claim- 1. 'The described locomotiveto its tenderor car by hars reaching fromV theY forward endofl the locomotive, downward and under the same,.to theiforward end of its attached. car, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The coupling-bars A,i constructed. each withr an upwardcurve, b,V at4 each end,.and adapted tor be adjustably applied in `pairs to couple cars together, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

x WM. HALSTED. Witnesses:

J. E. CHANTRY, A. T." MILLARD.

method of" connecting a i 

